For decades Japan has remained at or near the top of international assessments of student learning; and in the past decade, students in Japan have become more engaged in learning. However, the government aspires to improve learning outcomes even further. Strong Performers and Successful Reformers in Education: Lessons from PISA for Japan focuses on how Japan is reforming its education system not only to produce better learning outcomes, but to equip students with the skills they need to navigate through the unpredictable labour market of the future and to participate in society as active citizens.

This is the second in a series of reports examining how education systems are handling the challenge of preparing their students for a world of interconnected populations, rapid technological change, and instantaneous availability of vast amounts of information. Like the first volume, Strong Performers and Successful Reformers in Education: Lessons from PISA for the United States, this report presents examples from other countries with consistently high-performing education systems or countries that, by redesigning policies and practices, have been able to improve their education outcomes, as measured by the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the world’s most comprehensive and rigorous survey of students’ skills and attitudes towards learning.

Singapore has transformed itself from a developing country into a modern industrial economy in one generation. In the past decade, Singapore’s education system has remained at or near the top of most major world education rankings. This chapter examines how Singapore has achieved so much so quickly, focusing on the government’s ability to match skills supply with demand; the prevailing belief in the centrality of education; the emphasis on building teacher and leadership capacity to deliver reforms at the school level; and a culture of continuous improvement that benchmarks its own education practices against the best in the world.